Let’s just start by saying, I HATE push ups. Yes, they’re good for arm strength; yes, they’re good for core strength; yes, they’re good for training your respiratory system; and yes, they’re apparently good for assessing your risk of a cardiovascular disease/incident. I still hate doing them.
While this article isn’t perfect, and likely doesn’t adequately assess the full spectrum of people – whether it’s age, race, culture, socio-economic status, physical activity, or gender (it specifically states the results are based active adult men), etc – and they fully admit the short coming of diversity it’s still an interesting place to start.
What is cardiovascular disease (CVD)? Well, firstly it’s the leading cause of death, IN THE WORLD. It’s better viewed as a categorical term, there are many “sub” diseases that fall under the umbrella of CVD. The short of it is, it’s a dysfunction somewhere affecting the way that your heart (cardio-) and blood vessels (-vascular) function. The following list of possible diseases is not all inclusive, but hits some of the more common and well known: heart attack, stroke, heart failure, arrhythmia, and valve problems.
What causes it? Everything and nothing. Honestly, you could be unlucky and have bad genetics. But you could be making some poor life decisions and doing it to yourself. Things like smoking, obesity, poor diet, lack of physical activity, and stress can contribute to the onset of CVD.
How do you know you have it? Typically, you undergo some type of testing that is ordered due to a symptom or complaint you have relating to your health. You may have to do a blood test, stress test, x-ray, EKG, etc. It depends on how you’re presenting and what your medical history is.
I’m going to make a shameless plug here to urge you to get your yearly physical. Some of these issues can show up before they’re a big problem and you can do something about it. But if your doctor doesn’t know you, you don’t know you, and your doctor doesn’t know your health, then no one can know you’re at risk! We live in a world today where doctors have weekend hours, telehealth is more readily available (and covered by a lot of insurances), you don’t have to lose a day’s work to see your doctor, and a yearly physical will likely save you from more lost time later.
For any physiotherapists out there reading this, take your patient’s vitals! A good blood pressure reading takes 2 minutes, and you’re seeing your patient the most, you’re going to notice a change! You can send them to their primary care physician and make positive, early changes. If you’re a patient in physical therapy – ask your PT to check your vitals!
Back to the article- some of this can be detected with testing physical fitness and/or cardiorespiratory fitness. This is where the push ups come in. While it’s not a perfect test or correlation and WON’T guarantee you a healthy heart, it will likely assist in prevention and detection of an issue. The article shows an inverse relationship between the number of push ups performed and the risk of CVD events over a 10 year period. Basically, the more push ups a person could do, the less likely they would incur a CVD.
Other things to consider: People who can do a lot of push ups likely lead healthier lifestyles and participate in more physical activity. The age group, while ages ranged from 21 to 66, the average age was 39.6, so we don’t know how reliable this data is with aging. Genetics, they’re always a factor.
What I like about push ups: They don’t require any equipment. You can do them anywhere, anytime. No excuses. They work a good chunk of the whole body.
So, in summary, do push ups, there’s really no downside. Except that I hate doing them.
Here’s the link to the article, incase you want more information or you want to look at all the statistics.
home 